Monday, October 28, 2013

I cannot believe how easy it is to miss just one week of blogging and then before you know it, you are almost a month behind. To be honest, it is not like I have not been super busy, well WE ALL HAVE, so it has not been easy to find the time to share with you all.

Thanks to technology I have scrolled back in my Iphone camera to try and remember all we have been doing.

My very last post was our quick little jaunt down to St George and per the camera roll in my phone here is a bulleted list of all we have been up to.

pulling all the edible and salvageable goodies out of our garden

newly discovered Lucy video interviews

getting in the Halloween spirit at Cornbellys

Sunday hikes

Carving pumpkins

a family trip to Punta Mita

Max and Daddy BYU football game

I will share a little blurb on each of these with you now.

Pulling all the edible and salvageable goodies out of our garden

Tomatoes, basil, and lots of herbs

Our family garden was very plentiful this summer and as the fall has approached we have had to put sheets over the veggies (just the tomatoes) and we were able to extend the season. We picked enough basil that we have bags and bags of pesto and we also roasted tons of tomatoes and froze them along with the pesto. We are hoping for some gardeny goodness all winter long.

newly discovered Lucy video interviews

Getting in the Halloween spirit at Cornbellys

haunted hayride at Cornbellys

Here is a nice shot of Hailey and the kiddos all ready to go on the haunted hay ride. You have got to love that Lucy smile. Cornbellys is so awesome. Thanksgiving point has gotten better ever single year and has added all sorts of fun stuff for the kids, corn cannons, mazes, rock climbing, haunted stuff, games, food and much more.

Sunday hikes

These guys can be the best of friends or worst of enemies on any given day

As fall has set in we have made a kind of Sunday tradition of driving up the canyon toward the Draper temple and we found a hiking trail off the side of the road and the kids have loved it. One week it was cold, cloudy and rainy but this past Sunday it was beautiful.

Carving pumpkins

We had a family home evening one monday at the Lovell's house and aunt Lisa did a family home evening lesson on the harmful effects of telling lies and Hailey and I brought pumpkins to have the kids carve. It was a really fun time and we took seeds home and cooked them up and they were all eaten up within the next day.

a family trip to Punta Mita

Harris Kids, Noble Kids and Kandell Kids in the Villa Luna Pool

Date night with Hailey at Sea Breaze

Can you believe this picture?

The highlight of October, at least as of now is our family and friends trip to beautiful Punta Mita Mexico. This is the same house we went to last Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Kandell. We love it so much we went back and this time took two other families with us. We went with the Harris family and the Noble family. It was awesome to have so many kids to entertain each other and we parents had a blast too. The food was great, the house as comfortable and relaxing as always and we had great weather too. I feel like Punta Mita will be one of those destinations we will make a family traditional trip/vacation full of memories.

Max and Daddy BYU football game

BYU spanked Boise State this night

Max and I went to the BYU vs Boise State game and had a great time. Here we are in the cougar store getting our gear on! Max loved that little ball we bought and we threw it and played catch under the stadium at half time and he thought that was the highlight as there were so many other "older" boys doing it too. He now wants to go back with his cousins Easton and Zach since they know how to play catch too.

Well as you can see October has been awesome so far and Halloween is right around the corner so we are very excited for that too.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

I am not 100% sure if this is an annual tradition yet, but it is beginning to feel like one. This past weekend we headed down to St George with the car packed, bikes on the back and kids nestled away inside for a quick cousins weekend in sunny St George, Utah.

We left Thursday night but were not able to get on the road until about 7:30 pm since we had to wait for Adyson to finish her dance classes in Orem. I came home from work and Hailey had all the bags packed, art project in the car and movies loaded up. She sure knows how to make the drive a bit easier! I loaded the bags in, put the bikes on the tow rack and we were off.

Grandma and Grandpa Kandell were already down in St George and the Lovell cousins drove down Thursday night also. As we were leaving there were reports of snow coming in and frost warnings so we were really excited to get down to the southern desert of Utah. The kids did really good and Hailey and I laughed a bit as we watched Max struggle for about 30 mins in and out of sleep and you know how a kid will nod off the feel as though he was falling or something. Hailey eventually climbed back there and helped him get situated so that he would quit falling onto Adyson.

We got into St George around 11:45 or so and the kids of course went straight to bed. Lucy actually slept quite a bit of the way down. The next morning the kids of course got up early and went right to playing. It is so much fun to see them playing together and talking and carrying on. Bike riding around the block is like the pinnacle of fun for the Kandell kids since we do not really live in a normal neighborhood. So the kids were on bikes all the time. The first morning there it is a tradition for Grandma Sue to get on her bike and ride to the local Mcdonalds where she is a kind of celebrity and to have all the kids on bikes riding along with her. Other fun things included lizard hunting, making hotels and houses out of cardboard boxes and clothes pin people, Halloween cookies and art, BYU football and of course the main reason for the trip is the Santa Clara parade and the Tuacahn play of Mary Poppins.

spooky Halloween masks and bike rides around the neighborhood made for a good time

My mom and Hailey took just the oldest two cousins to see the play on Saturday night and they said it is absolutely the best play they have seen there and every year it seems to get better and better. Adyson and Easton thought it was awesome and the boy in the play actually goes to Ady's school so she thought that was great.

We also attend each year with all the kids, the Santa Clara parade and it is such a good parade. We had the best spot this year and had shade and not tons of other kids trying to get our kid's candy. Max cleaned house and was relentless enough that we had to slow him down a bit.

Hailey and Max loving the parade

Max is loving his role as big brother and is showing Lucy the Princess Float coming down the road.

My favorite part of the parade is the fair food afterwords and I even ate curry goat from a Jamaican vendor this year. The kids ate lots, listened to the live music and we all just enjoyed the sun!

amazing Halloween cookies Hailey made with the kids

Max is just chilling listening to the local music while Lucy and Saige hang out

Cousins hiking in a river bed that is dried out

Adyson and Easton in their spooky masks they made with Hailey

We love going to St George and spending some time (trying to relax, though with 7 kids under 9 it is tough) relaxing with family.

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"You will have significant experiences. I hope you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experiences."